A Father's Hope
by JeffC FTW
Summary: A missing scene from the epilogue of "The Monkey King Takes His Queen". On the night before his wedding day, Monty Fiske is visited by the ghost of his father. Eighth in the Monkey Fist Saga.


**With "The Monkey King Takes His Queen" completed, I thought I'd bring in a missing scene from the epilogue, in which Monty Fiske - about to become a married man - is paid a visit by the spirit of the father who shunned him because he "killed" the mother who gave birth to him, when it was actually the mother herself who sacrificed her life for her baby's. Monty's lived with the hate all his life, and now that he's redeemed himself and became a better man than his father - and about to marry the woman he loves as well as accept her daughter as his own - he does not expect the shocking surprise on this very night. Also rated for nudity and masturbation.**

 **The cover image is a wonderful piece called "Hope" by MyLifeThroughTheLens on deviantart. The equally memorable text goes: "Fear can hold you prisoner. Hope can set you free." Just pure beautiful meaning and irony. :D**

 **I don't own Kim Possible or the characters, not even the amazing Monkey Fist. And I certainly do not own the country or the beach and such in which this fic currently takes place.**

Wedding day jitters, Bates told him earlier that day when they first arrived at the hotel in Baishawan Beach, one of the finest Taiwanese tourist attractions with crystal sands and waters. By tomorrow - or should he say, today, now that it was in the wee hours of the morning? - he, Lord Montgomery Fiske, would become a married man.

His beloved, Kim, had already been married once and had a young daughter with her late husband; this would be Monty's first marriage. Wasn't it funny how life could turn out to not be special at times, especially in terms of tradition in which bride and groom waited until the wedding night to consummate their love and marriage in one? Or should he say, he and Kimberly were the first and last long before this day?

If anyone wondered what that meant - and no one would ever know but them and the few they could trust - it was the fact she was the first he had been with in his lifetime, and he was the one to take her maidenhead. That was special enough, but there had been no prediction at the time that they would one day be man and wife.

Monty Fiske had not been this giddy with excitement since...well, years ago when he happened across the legends of the Mystical Monkey Power, the jade idols and everything that drowned him from the world. He had always been a proud man and desired more than living with the taunts and loathing of the man who blamed him for the death of the woman who gave birth to him. He wanted to be stronger than that, accomplish so much that he would never worry about anything being taken from him again, and countless times blocked...

He sighed sharply as he looked ahead and out the window leading to the balcony of the suite he shared with Bates and the monkey ninjas who were all in their respectable rooms. He'd made peace with the past over a year ago, so there was no use in dwelling on anymore losses. When the sun broke, he had a day of happiness with his fiancée to look forward to.

And yet, he had to awake at barely two in the morning to a sensation following a very pleasant dream he could not recall, and he almost growled. It had been weeks since he and Kim had last been together like this; ever since selling off some of his lands in England and moving in with her and Sara, there had been limited spare time with each other, given children tended to have nightmares at night or simply wanted attention. In addition to the stress of planning this wedding, she had been ill in the last several weeks that making love could have made it worse. Monty could not even count how many times his body betrayed his respects of her wishes, and a cold shower as well as solo ministrations sufficed even if they were not the same as being with his future wife.

There was no telling how many times, ever since he was rescued from the Yono after several years, he had touched himself because it was unhealthy and yet relieved him from mental stress and paranoia at the same time. His therapist had stated so and gave him suggestions of leisurely activities, and Bates had done the same when meditation wasn't in the question. And right now, this was not like those times. If he didn't take care of this now, he would wake up on the morning of his wedding the grouchiest man on the planet.

He kicked off the covers then, revealing his nude body beneath the moonlight streaming in. No one but him would see this. He hadn't slept like this since moving in with Kim and beginning to share a bed with her, but tonight had been an exception for odd unknown, natural reasons. To think he'd been like this in the early months of living in the world again following his escape from the Destroyer's hell. His body well-done, shining in the silvery light, and his hands and feet pure human and a part of him. He laid on his back and exhaled, staring up at the ceiling as he ran his hands over the front of his body, shivering, and reached where he was tight and sizzling. Tugging and smoothing the coarse hair between his legs had been an additional stimulation, but upon grasping the actual important flesh did his body arch and writhe; the moans escaping his throat could very much awaken the monkeys and Bates if he did not keep it down.

There was no one in particular that Monty could cry out to in his lonesome moment, but his mind moved to that of Kim, the very pictures of her beginning when she was a young girl of sixteen but actually had the ferocity of a woman: her long fiery hair tumbled over her shoulders and down her back even, her body toned and kissed by the sun, and her breasts full as two pieces of the Forbidden Fruit itself - and that was exactly what it had been for their first time - peaked with hard cherry buds...and it was the place where he broke her barrier and made her a woman that intoxicated him the most. Silken peach petals covered with a bush of auburn flames, masking a sweetness that belonged to the fruit itself with a mild bite to it. This had been simply lust he spoke of at the time - but not anymore upon reuniting with the woman she was now. Barely thirty, there was much of her that had not changed; her body and her breasts were all the same, her honey-toned flesh, but her curves were fuller if not horribly massed, and her firm abdomen was lined with the remnants of having a baby. Her flaming mane had been cropped short to below the ears, layered like mentioned licking fires. Changed or not physically, she was the same powerful, irresistible fighting minx that bested him at every turn.

When he linked once more with her, it was living proof that the fire they shared never ended. Not even when it had only been a single night twelve years ago, not even when she left him shortly after, not even when he continued to rage and fight back at her, not even when he unleashed the Yono on her, her allies and loved ones and Yamanouchi, not even when he was imprisoned...and not even when she eventually moved on from him until she lost her love. Time healed their wounds and brought them together now.

He arched when his point was struck someplace in his nether regions. Monty's head rolled side to side albeit temporarily as he continued to stroke himself. Some of his pubis hairs were caught in his toying, but it didn't distract him until he reached his peak, but before he exploded, he rolled over onto his stomach to not let it loose into the air and onto himself, but into the sheets, until there was nothing left to spend. It wasn't the same with Kim, but it made his body feel drowsy, and he was ready to go to sleep just as he pulled the covers back over himself...

 _"My son, on the verge of marital status."_

He nearly jumped out of his skin at the sound of that voice in his room, but he held himself together as he sat upright, clutching the sheets close to his body. Upon seeing _what_ and _whom_ stood there at the foot of the bed, he relaxed but otherwise held his guard up. A year ago, the spirits of Master Sensei and his mother approached him in the dojo of his castle and guided him towards finding peace, to heal his mind, body and soul - and his heart - but now this one unwelcomed addition had to approach him in the early morning before his wedding. He was not the least bit happy to see this particular specter.

"Father," he said coldly, not smiling, and neither did the ghost of the man who created him and gave his mother only to shun him when she died for him. "Just what do you want?"

Edward Fiske sighed and bowed his head. _"I am not here to fight, my son. I am only here to speak to you,"_ he answered. But Monty never cared to take the time to understand his distant maker and would not now - but his consciousness insisted that he listen. He knew that he would not ignore the spirit of the man who made his young life hell, and would go insane if the elder Fiske did not leave him be. Less sleep before the wedding day was hardly worse than no sleep at all.

He snorted and sat backwards, his back against the headboard. "After all these years, and you want to talk," he stated, folding his arms across his chest. "Just what? Tell me what a fool I was to throw my life away for a great power that I did not see was beyond me, that you were right when you told me it was really nothing, hm? Well, Father, I hate to burst your bubble that I won't give you that satisfaction. I've gotten my life back on track and realize that I am far better than you ever were to me."

 _"That is why I am here, Monty. I know this won't be a surprise to you, but I have watched you. Your mother is very proud of you, and I suppose I deserve the cold shoulder she gave me when I rejoined her in the afterlife,"_ Edward answered, a sad glint in his eyes. _"After all, I did not keep the promise she made me. I lost it when she was taken from me, and I didn't know what to truly do without her. I know it is inexcusable for a man to give, but you must understand that I loved your mother with more passion than the sun could give this world."_

For a moment, he was at a loss for words. He'd known this all his life, but it changed nothing of the anger he still felt for the man who was supposed to have been there for him. His father hardly had the drop of paternal instinct in his bones that Bates had given him. _"Son, I wasn't there for you, and I don't know how many times I can say I'm sorry,"_ Edward went on, _"but I wasn't the one to form you the way I should have. You're so much like your mother in more ways than one, and my failure as a father was caused by it. Just the knowledge that she wasn't really there in our lives was more agonizing than anything I felt in my life."_ His expression to change surprised Monty altogether; it became the managed smile that his young son had never before seen, or even if he had ever smiled, then young Monty was never in his presence.

 _"But in spite of all mistakes you made brought by me if not by my own hand, I was...proud to see you become a great man."_ He chuckled lightly. _"It is strange to use the word when we both know I never once used it for you. And...I know I have no right to request anything of you, and foolish as it is obvious, I beg you to treat your wife and stepdaughter far better than I ever treated you."_

He was not sure when his body began to break out into sweat, but that was the least of his worries. Edward Fiske never once told him he was proud of his accomplishments, never once looked his son in the eyes and told him he loved him, only yelled at him for being like his mother and even _looking_ like her - and now his spirit had to come and visit him the night before his wedding to _make amends?!_ Monty just had to laugh, even when Edward asked him to be good to the new family he was gaining.

"You had to ask this of me when it should be plainly obvious. I have been so much more good to them than you ever were. That child filled me in a way that I never did to you," he said angrily, clenching his fists in the sheets and twisting them. "Did my childhood innocence mean anything to _you_? Did you even stop to think that your only child would ever need you most? No. You had no right to be called a father when it was Bates who filled that void the best he could. Did it ever mean anything to you in order to make you understand that it was _Mother_ who made the choice to die in order for me to live, thought I was more important than her own life?!" His voice rose enough to raise the ceiling, and he quickly lowered it in case Bates or any of the monkey ninjas heard. "I wasn't the one to make the choice for her."

His father's apparition sighed and shook his head. Monty had expected him to burst with a fury like he always used to, so he was not used to seeing this side of his father that his mother had showed - the mother he never knew his entire life. He had assumed that his father's spirit would not take this easy, as he himself was still struggling to do so as it was due to the fact that Catherine Fiske had called him better than his father, the man she loved but changed when she died.

 _"No, you didn't make the choice, and all these years I never accepted the truth,"_ the elder Fiske spoke after a long moment, _"but I always accepted that your mother was the bravest woman I'd ever known. There were times she was forced to give aspects of herself up, beginning with her own father. And with me, she gave it up willingly on her own even though sometimes I never asked her to. She was very proud that you became what she always wanted you to...and most importantly, you became just like her in the moment you sacrificed your power for the one you love. My eyes truly opened then, my son."_

Monty looked up at him when the silvery form of his father walked around and stood above him, but keeping his distance. He wanted to snap at him to keep away, but everything he said which matched that of Catherine made him feel light inside, which he hadn't felt since over a year ago. His long-suppressed hate and anger for this man had returned only to slowly ebb away when Edward Fiske spoke his resignation and admittance to his wrongdoings against his own son. While Monty knew he could not completely forgive his father, he realized from the depths that hanging onto that horrid feeling against the elder would not accomplish anything.

"So, you want me to tell you that I forgive you and will gladly accept you now," he said blandly, lowering his guard if only slightly. He was tempted to spit but didn't.

Edward shook his head sadly. _"I wouldn't dream of forcing it from you. I just came to give you one last additional peace to shut down the barriers for tomorrow coming for you. Monty, your mother is right when she says you are a hundred times the man I ever was."_ He chuckled lightly. _"And isn't it ironic that while I failed you as a father, you are taking the responsibilities of raising the child of a man you once loathed?"_ When he spoke of Ronald, it made the son himself chuckle as he did see the irony, but it wasn't laughable.

"Yes," he agreed. The additional piece of the truth dawned on him then that he had to tell his father. "Isn't it also ironic that he and Mother are so alike in that they both had to give their lives for those they loved?"

 _"Indeed. And one last thing before I leave you in peace: the child, and any that you will have with Kim Stoppable, prove that my own son has indefinitely grown beyond the limits that I regrettably have placed."_

So, it was settled then. His father had come to confess that he had been wrong all these years but never let his heart be vulnerable again; even in death, he watched as his son morphed dramatically and ultimately became a man. Their hostilities were at an end on the night before the son's wedding, so what better way than to find peace than on this night? Monty Fiske locked one last gaze with his father's spectral form before sighing, laying down in bed and keeping the covers close to him but loosening his tight grip as he accepted his father's long apology speech.

A long moment paused before he answered. "You're right in that I can't forget a lifetime of no love, no wisdom and certainly no support...but I do forgive you and understand, Father."

Edward Fiske's smile was most genuine as he bowed his head forward once, then reached out with one hand to place over the back of his son's. Monty shivered as the tingles coursed through his body and sighed, closing his eyes as he knew that sleep was coming back for him, brought on by his father's blessing and his own body's needs.

 _"Farewell then, my son."_

The nightmare was finally over, and Lord Monty Fiske could concentrate on his own future beginning tomorrow: he would marry Kim, love Sara as though she were his own, and if any more children came, he would not treat them the way he had been treated. He was not his father, and he would not let the past affect him or those around him anymore. But Edward Fiske hadn't always been the man his son knew, he knew that. He had been loving once, would have been a wonderful parental figure if they'd been the way he, Kim and Sara were - and even more if Lady Catherine Fiske had lived. But what had been done had been done, because destiny made it that way. Monty used the word appropriately because of the happiness he had received in return for allowing things to come and go.

He certainly looked forward to the day coming - the day that he would become a devoted husband and father.

 **Reviews appreciated. :D No flames or bad comments, please.**


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